Since 2009, the EU has been targeting transnational organised crime through a series of integrated projects in countries along the Cocaine Route. These projects – albeit successful in enhancing capacities of beneficiaries – have revealed the need to provide support to investigations and prosecutions of complex cases across multiple jurisdictions to pursue criminal justice outcomes beyond seizures.
CRIMJUST began in 2016 and focused on strengthening criminal investigation and criminal justice cooperation along drug trafficking routes. In its current third phase acknowledging the need to comprehensively address all illicit flows, CRIMJUST is now the Criminal network disruption global programme. It complements the existing projects of the Global Illicit Flows Programme by strengthening criminal investigation and criminal justice cooperation in Latin America, the Caribbean and West African countries, so as to enhance their capacity to effectively counter organised crime along drug trafficking routes.
The project facilitates cooperation and information exchange between criminal justice agencies to spur pre- and post- seizure inter-regional investigations and so support case preparation and case progression. It bolsters these efforts with research on the global cocaine market and as well as strengthening institutional integrity of key organisations.
The project also supports law enforcement and other justice sector institutions in strengthening integrity, accountability and resilience against corruption and influence of organised crime.
The project is implemented by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in partnership with INTERPOL and Transparency International.
